Attorney Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that he believes that Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann has a “reasonable case” in his lawsuit against The Washington Post over its coverage of a confrontation between Sandmann and a Native American elder in Washington, D.C.
The viral video of the confrontation shows Sandmann, who was attending the March for Life, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and smiling at Nathan Phillips, who was in D.C. for the Indigenous People’s March.
“I think they have a reasonable case, I mean the world was guilty of libel,” Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor and contributor at The Hill, told hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton of the case.
“These poor kids seemed to be doing exactly the right thing, and then suddenly because they are thought to be white, privileged kids, suddenly everyone’s ganging up on them,” he continued.
It was revealed on Tuesday that Sandmann sued the Post for $250 million over its coverage of the confrontation.
The defamation lawsuit alleges that the publication “targeted and bullied” Sandmann.
The lawsuit also claims that the Post targeted him in an effort to “advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda” against President Trump.
Trump praised Sandmann in a tweet on Wednesday, saying, “Go get them Nick.”
“The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.” Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
Dershowitz, who frequently defends Trump on legal matters, suggested that Sandmann may be asking for too much in the suit in the form of $250 million.
“I’d be interested to see how the case unfolds. I mean they’re asking for a lot of money, I don’t think that’s going to be taken too seriously,” he said. “But I do think that they have a significant case and it will be interesting to see how the Post defends against their reporting in the case.”
“It’s important to air this issue out in the public, and one of the functions that a suit like this has is to lay it all out in the public,” he continued. “The media has to be responsible for their reporting particularly when you have kids who have no ability generally to defend themselves against media reporting.”
— Julia Manchester
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